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European Journal of Preventive Cardiology embraces all the scientific, clinical and public health disciplines that address the causes and prevention of cardiovascular disease, as well as cardiovascular rehabilitation and exercise physiology.

It serves the interests of complementary working groups in the European Society of Cardiology and other European professional societies, such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, internal medicine, behavioural medicine and general practice. It provides an avenue for reports of the European Heart Network, national heart foundations, non-governmental and governmental organizations, and the European Union.

European Journal of Preventive Cardiologyis a fully refereed journal embracing all the scientific, clinical and public health disciplines that address the causes and prevention of cardiovascular disease, as well as cardiovascular rehabilitation and exercise physiology.

It serves the interests of complementary working groups in the European Society of Cardiology and other European professional societies, such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, internal medicine, behavioural medicine and general practice. It provides an avenue for reports of the European Heart Network, national heart foundations, non-governmental and governmental organizations, and the European Union.

Authors submitting to the journal will be asked to select the category from the following list which best describes the focus of their paper. The paper, if accepted, will be identified by that category name in the contents list of the issue it is published in:

Blood Pressure

Cardiac Rehabilitation

Coronary Heart Disease

CVD Risk Factors

Diabetes

Drug Treatment

Lipids

Nutrition

Peripheral Heart Disease

Prevention

Smoking

Sports

Stroke

Note that the Editors are keen to receive submissions from all of the above areas of research.

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://www.editorialmanager.com/ejpc to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

It is necessary to complete an Author Responsibility Form as part of the submission process to stipulate the roles and responsibilities of each individual author who contributes to the manuscript. This information is required for submission – your manuscript will be returned if this is not completed.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of European Journal of Preventive Cardiology will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you

Before submitting your manuscript to European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

1.2 Article Types

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology publishes papers on all aspects of clinical and public health disciplines that address the causes and prevention of cardiovascular disease, as well as cardiovascular rehabilitation and exercise physiology.

The following are the various article types which the journal publishes. Authors must adhere to the page/word counts given here. The word counts cover all sections of a manuscript, including title, author names/affiliation, abstract, keywords, figure/table legends and references.

Full Research Articles
These should not exceed 5,000 words (including references, tables and figures, with each table or figure reducing that word count by 250). They may include up to a maximum of 6 figures and/or tables and up to 40 references. Research articles should be divided into the following sections: (1) Title page, (2) Abstract and up to six Keywords, (3) Introduction, (4) Methods, (5) Results, (6) Discussion, (7) Acknowledgements, (8) Funding, (9) Conflict of interest, (10) Authors’ Contributions, (11) References, (12) Figure legends, (13) Appendices, (14) Tables, (15) Figures. The Abstract should be divided into the following sections ‘Aims’, ‘Methods’, ‘Results’ and ‘Conclusion’; it should not exceed 250 words.

Clinical Practice/Education
Reviews and Issues for Debate articles, which focus on education in the clinical practice environment, are welcomed. These should not exceed 5,000 words (including references, tables and figures, with each table or figure reducing that word count by 250). They may include up to a maximum of 6 figures and/or tables and up to 30 references. A formal structured division is not required, but an Abstract (less than 250 words length) is necessary.

Review/Consensus Document/Position Papers:
The European Journal of Preventive Cardiology publishes a limited number of scholarly, comprehensive Review Papers, Position Papers and Consensus Documents, which may be invited or not. Consensus Documents / Position Papers should be preferably endorsed by a Scientific Association, or Section or Working Group of an Association and therefore the Authors should acknowledge that they are writing on behalf of it. Position Papers are prepared by a single scientific body, while the Consensus Documents by more than one. They should summarise and critically evaluate research in the subject area, and should discuss implications for the future. These papers are expected to be around 10 journal pages long (ie. around 8,700 words, with each table or figure reducing that word count by 250), with an unstructured abstract (with no headings) which should not exceed 250 words, and they may include up to 45–50 references.
N.B. Systematic reviews should follow the format of full research articles and should be submitted as a Full Research article during the submission process.

Editorials
All editorials should be limited to 1,300 words (excluding references), with a maximum of 10 references. They do not require an abstract and may include one table and/or figure. In particular, the addition of one figure would be welcome and could add to the understanding and attractiveness of the article. The following different categories of editorials may be considered:
- Invited Editorial. Written upon invitation by the Editor, it is a comment to a research article and should discuss its results, compare them with the current literature and give a personal interpretation of the study.
- Commentary. This is a commentary on a topical item. It may be invited or not. When we receive more commentaries regarding a similar topic they may be gathered under the category of “Different viewpoints” in the index page. However, their labelling will remain “Commentary” in the title page so that they may be considered alone.
- In the News. This is a comment on recent events, congress or trials underway.

Short Reports
These reports should not exceed 1300 words and should comprise a Background section (≈100 words), Aims (≈50 words), Methods (≈300 words), Results (300 words) and Conclusion (250 words). The editorial team reserves the right to decide which of the tables/figures submitted are necessary.

Research Letters
Research Letters based on original research findings are also allowed. They are less formal than a Short Report, i.e. not structured, and with no Abstract. The letter may include up to 1000 words, including a maximum of 10 references, and one figure and/or Table. While there should be no sub-headings, however, a short description of methods, results and conclusions is required.

Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor may regard comments to an article published in our journal in a previous issue. These letters should have a maximum of 3 authors, should not exceed 700 words and have a maximum of 5 references, including one reference to the article that they are about. We may ask for a reply from the authors of the original article and the letter and its reply will be published together.

8,700 words
(with each table or figure reducing that word count by 250)

Up to 45–50 references

Short report

2 journal pages

1,300 words
(with each table or figure reducing that word count by 250)

Commentary

2 journal pages

1,300 words
(may include 1 figure and/or table)

Up to 10 references

Editorial

2 journal pages

1,300 words
(may include 1 figure and/or table)

Up to 10 references

Research Letters

2 journal pages

1,000 words
(may include 1 figure and/or table)

Up to 10 references

Letter to the Editor

1 journal page

700 words
(with each table or figure reducing that word count by 250)

Up to 5 references

1.2.2 Special issues and sponsored supplements

If you have an idea for a special issue, or are interested in publishing a sponsored supplement, please contact the editorial office directly to discuss: ejpceditorialoffice@sagepub.com.

1.3 Writing your paper

Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page. All Research papers must be arranged in sections under the headings and in the order indicated below (begin each on a separate page):

Title page

The title page should carry the full title of the paper, consisting of no more than 20 words (only common abbreviations should be used if absolutely necessary); titles should be clear and brief, conveying the message of the paper.

All authors’ names: the full first name, middle name/initial (optional) and last name of each author should appear; if the work is to be attributed to a department or institution, its full name and location should be included. Persons listed as authors should be those who substantially contributed to the study's conception, design, and performance as per the guidance in section above.

The affiliations of all the authors; when authors are affiliated to more than one institution, their names should be connected using a,b,c. These letters should follow the surname but precede the address; they should be used only for the second and subsequent addresses.

Information about previous presentations of the whole or part of the work presented in the article.

The sources of any support, for all authors, for the work in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or any combination of these.

Disclaimers, if any.

The name and address of the author responsible for correspondence concerning the manuscript, and the name and address of the author to whom requests for reprints should be made. If reprints are not to be made available, a statement to this effect should be included.

The peer review process as well as publication will be delayed if you do not provide up to date e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers.

Word count: please list full word count (including references).

Structured abstract

The second page should carry an abstract not exceeding 250 words and should include sections on Background, Design, Methods, Results and Conclusions. Please list the abstract word count at the end of the abstract. Abstracts are required for Full Research Papers, Reviews and Clinical Practice/Education papers only (they are not required for Letters, Editorials and Commentaries). For Reviews, an abstract is required, which may be structured or unstructured.

Keywords

The abstract should be followed by a list of 3-10 keywords which will assist the cross-indexing of the article and will be published. The terms used should be from the Medical Subject Headings list of the Index Medicus.

Main text

Full papers of an experimental or observational nature should be divided into sections headed Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

Use of abbreviations should be kept to an absolute minimum; abbreviations and abbreviated phrases should be written out at first mention followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Avoid those not accepted by international bodies. Systéme International (SI) units should be used where appropriate.

Units: The Systéme International (SI)

The European Journal of Preventive Cardiology employs SI Units (see Quantities, Units, and Symbols, 2nd edn. London: The Royal Society of Medicine; 1975). All submitted papers should use this system, which should only be departed from where long-established clinical usage demands it (e.g. the measurement of blood pressure in mmHg). Where helpful, other units of measurement may be included in parentheses. Whenever possible, renin should be expressed in terms of the International Standard Renin Unit [Bangham et al.: Clin Sci 1975, 48(suppl):135s-159s]. Derived SI units may also be used, and for basic and derived units prefixes to denote multiples and submultiples may be used.

The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

Submitted papers will undergo full peer review, and written comments, when available, will be returned with all refereed manuscripts. Reports for provisionally accepted papers will include a review by a statistician which authors will be required to follow when revising their manuscript. The final decision on the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript will be made by the Editors.

As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of two peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:

The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission,

The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors,

Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted.

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

2.2.1 Authorship responsibility form

It is necessary to complete an Author Responsibility Form as part of the submission process to stipulate the roles and responsibilities of each individual author who contributes to the manuscript. This information is required for submission – your manuscript will be returned if this is not completed.

Authors are also required to declare their contribution to the manuscript under a separate heading within the manuscript, as per categories specified in the Authorship Responsibility Form. This should appear after any other declarations and before your references. Please state author names as initials. For example:

Author contributions
AB and CD contributed to the conception or design of the work. EF contributed to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work. AB and CD drafted the manuscript. EF critically revised the manuscript. All gave final approval and agree to be accountable for all aspects of work ensuring integrity and accuracy.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

2.3.1 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

2.4 Funding

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of European Journal of Preventive Cardiology to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

2.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway.

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. Please include all text and tables in a Word document when submitting your manuscript.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online and in the print issue. There is no charge for reproducing figures in colour in the printed version.

4.2.1 Illustrations

Size and presentation

When preparing illustrations, it should be kept in mind that they will be printed in the Journal either at column width (about 84mm wide) or at page width (about 170 mm wide). Figures should be professionally drawn and photographed; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Photomicrographs must have internal scale markers. If photographs of people are used, their identities must be obscured or the picture must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph. Photographs may be cropped or deleted at the discretion of the Editor.

Legends for illustrations

All illustrations must have legends. These should be typed using double spacing, beginning on a separate page, each with an Arabic numeral corresponding to the illustration to which it refers. All abbreviations used in the illustration must be defined in the legend. Internal scales should be explained, and staining methods for photomicrographs identified.

Figures sent by hardcopy

All illustrations should have a label pasted on the back bearing the figure number, the title of the paper, the author's name and an arrow indicating the top of the figure. Avoid writing directly on the back of prints. Do not mount illustrations.

4.2.2 Photographs

Supply halftone illustrations (photographs) as sharp, glossy, black-and-white prints, preferably to a width of 84mm or, when the illustration demands it, to a width of 170mm.

4.2.3 Line drawings

Artwork should be submitted either as glossy prints or as high-quality laser prints; dot-matrix printers do not produce artwork suitable for publication.

4.2.4 Tables

Each table should be typed on a separate sheet in double spacing. Tables should not be submitted as photographs. Each table MUST have a title and should be assigned an arabic numeral, e.g. (Table 3). Vertical rules should not be used. Tables should not duplicate the content of the text. Each table should consist of at least two columns.

Table headings

If applicable, table headings should indicate whether the figures used represent percentages, by (%) after the figure, or units. Columns should always have headings.

Table footnotes

Information should be listed in the following order:

Abbreviations and symbols should be defined in the order in which they appear in the table (reading across each line rather than down columns); spell out ALL abbreviations and symbols used in the table, even if they have already been listed in previous tables or the text itself when giving a key, use a comma rather than =, e.g. H, hypertensive NOT H=hypertensive.

Any additional comments should follow the explanation of abbreviations and symbols.

Keys to the P values should be listed in the following order (note the use of asterisks for probability): *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001; asterisks are the only symbols that should be used with P values; DO NOT use @ or #.

Checklist for data in tables

the data are consistent with those cited in the relevant parts in the text,

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

4.4 Reference style

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology adheres to the SAGE Vancouver reference style. View the SAGE Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

4.6 Publication of Twitter handles

As a way of encouraging ongoing discussion within the field, EJPC authors are offered the option of providing their personal and/or institutional Twitter handle to be published alongside their name and email address within their article. This way EJPC readers who have questions or thoughts regarding your paper can tweet you or your institution directly. Providing a Twitter handle for publication is entirely optional; if you are not comfortable with EJPC promoting your article along with your personal and/or institutional personal Twitter handles then please do not supply them.

By providing a Twitter handle you agree to allow EJPC, the ESC, EAPC and SAGE Publishing use it in any posts related to your journal article. You may also be contacted by other Twitter users. EJPC, the ESC, EAPC and SAGE Publishing will have no control over you or your tweets at any time. If you would like guidance on how to promote your article yourself on Twitter or other Social Media channels please visit https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/promote-your-article

To include your Twitter handle within your article, please provide this within the Editorial Manager Submission form when prompted and also on the Title Page for the manuscript. Your contact information will appear as below within the published article:

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology is hosted on Editorial Manager, a web based online submission and peer review system. Visit http://www.editorialmanager.com/ejpc to login and submit your article online.

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their Editorial Manager accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

5.4 Author submission interface

Editorial Manager can extract metadata directly from the author’s manuscript file to auto populate parts of the submission process. The auto-extraction tool will only work on Microsoft Word-readable files (.doc and .docx). For information on how to structure your manuscript and optimise this tool please watch Optimizing Metadata Extraction using Xtract (Version 14.1)

Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. In addition, SAGE is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximise your article’s impact with Kudos.